I recently visited the Delaware shore to do some research on the Orange Crush, a highball beach drink that is massively popular on the Delaware and Maryland coasts. Not the most serious of drinks–it’s orange-flavored vodka, triple sec, fresh orange juice and lemon-lime soda—but it has a 30 years history behind it at this point and is that rare thing: a regional cocktail of recent vintage. I posted a long story recording my thoughts on my newsletter The Mix.
When work schedules allow, we take an August week in Ocean City (the Maryland one), but the only beachy drinks I have there are frozen margaritas and Natty Boh, but you’re right, the Crushes are on every freaking menu.
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It’s interesting, I have spent some time down there and had never heard of this drink. When I’m in a beach environment like that, I’m assuming the drinks are expensive and bad, so I’m staying away from bars and laying in spirits and beer for (home) use.
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I mean, mostly same. In the hotel, I usually have beer or rosé in the fridge, and a bottle of bourbon to sip on the balcony overlooking the ocean or pool or parking lot.
But when I’m out with my family, I’ll order a drink with dinner, and a poolside burger tastes better with a cold Boh or slushy cocktail. I don’t really hit the bars because I’d be going alone.
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I’m from Baltimore originally, but only became aware of the drink when I was back home visiting family maybe 10-15 years ago. It was suddenly everywhere, especially sports bars.
I had always assumed it had some connection as a tribute to the Orioles and maybe their slugging first baseman Chris “Crush” Davis. The team certainly plays the hell out of that REM song every chance they get.
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I think regional drinks like this mainly stay a regional thing due to mindset. The Orange Crush is an easy to drink summer beverage that you can session. Kind of like the average vacationer who is looking for a party in a glass. Think of the Hand Grenade in NOLA. That has remained locked to it’s locale. Plus, the ingredients in an OC are damned cheap. Well, maybe not oranges with climate change.
I wonder if Seacrets in Ocean City makes an orange vodka. I wouldn’t be surprised.
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The ingredients ARE cheap, to be sure.
Love that song. If there’s a connection to the team, I haven’t found it yet.
You may not end up liking the Orange Crush, but it isn’t expensive. Your should pay $10-$11 tops and get three ounces of booze minimum.
My immediate thought was that it was named after the soft drink Crush which was originally named Orange Crush.
Doing a little research it seems there was an Orange Crush cocktail in Hawaii in 1981 with similar ingredients.
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I really enjoyed the post from @RobertSimonson on the Orange Crush cocktail.
The one thing I was curious about, however, is whether or not the name had anything anything to do with the orange flavored soft drink Crush which I remembered as kid. Looking into that lead me down a rabbit hole that makes me believe the drink did not actually originate in Delaware in the 1990s, but rather some time in the late 70s (or perhaps early 80s) and was inspired by the football team the Denver Broncos.
Before going forward I would say there were likely a few different “Orange Crush” cocktails, so here’s two specific recipes I found that pre-date 1995 (and one from the 2000s relevant to my theory) that seem to match the Delaware version.
The first one is from Hawaii in 1981, but the article mentions the drink was introduced by a manager who had just arrived there from San Diego.
I found another similar recipe from Marina del Ray, California in 1988.
I also found a similar recipe from a 2011 newspaper article from Alabama. This obviously post-dates 1995, but makes no mention of Delaware or Maryland and relevant to this post is part of a larger article on what to prepare for an college football viewing party. Plainsmans’ punch seems to refer to Auburn University whose team colors include orange.
When I tried searching for the history of the cocktail on newspapers.com I was surprised to find that what popped up first were ads or articles for football viewing events.
Here’s a 2014 article on Orange Crush cocktails being made for the Super Bowl in honor of the Denver Broncos playing.
Here’s a 1990 Hartford, Connecticut ad for a Super Bowl viewing party (Broncos were also playing) with Orange Crush cocktails mentioned (as well as San Fran coolers; no idea what those are.)
The earliest connection to Broncos and Orange Crush cocktails that I found was this ad from 1977.
While most ad and articles were connected to the Broncos there were also sources with other football connections included University of Tennessee in 1986 and Dolphins in 1977. Both teams are associated with the color orange (I also suspect Florida was more apt to pick up on a orange flavored drink than most states.)
Though it’s been used for many different teams it seems the concept of a “Orange Crush” cocktail started with the Denver Broncos. To summarize Orange Crush was a name given to their defense in the late 70s inspired by the team color and the soft drink by the same name (which created some really in depth ads back in the day).
The Orange Crush connection turned out to be a boon to the soft drink company though it quickly turned into legal troubles and eventually the Broncos would be restricted in using the term for merchandise.
Anyways I won’t post them all the articles I found, but while sales of Crush boomed for Broncos fans it seems many of them preferred it as a mixer in cocktails vs drinking it straight. There’s a variety of cocktails mentioned with names like the “Bronco-buster” and “Crush-driver”
Probably the height of Orange Crush cocktail/mixed drink making was when the Broncos went to the Super Bowl in 1978 which was held in New Orleans.
It should also be mentioned that it seems Orange Crush cocktails were being made in multiple cities. This is an interesting article about the trend in Chicago that has a few interesting recipe examples.
That said the company making Orange Crush seems to have pushed it hard as a mixer in New Orleans. This article mentions them shipping in cases of the drink for free distribution and also distributing “Broncomania recipe books" to around 250 bars.
These articles in combination with the recipes from the 1980s makes me reasonably sure that the Orange Crush cocktail originated with the Denver Broncos “Orange Crush” defense craze and not Delaware in the 1980s.
One thing to note is that the recipes from the 1980s don’t actually use the soda as a part of the drinks. In addition I doubt any cocktail recipes promoted by the Orange Crush would omit themselves as an ingredient.
My personal theory is that the original Orange Crush cocktail may or may not have had the soda in it, but it was likely made with OJ either due to personal preference or lack of access to the soft drink. It makes sense to me that most bars would have OJ in stock before the soft drink. This seems especially likely for drinks made in later years not during the heyday of Orange Crush-mania.
How the drink was popularized in Delaware and Maryland I couldn’t tell you, but it seems to be the same drink.
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Fantastic sleuthing, thanks! It seems plausible that between 1973–their first winning season—and 1977–their first playoff appearance—the Broncos appropriated the Orange Crush nickname from the soft drink, which was still produced by a small independent bottler at the time. Then the cocktails would have been developed to support the Broncos, and next the cocktails were borrowed by other teams with plausible orange ties. (It should be noted that the colorway for the Miami Dolphins included coral to a greater extent than orange, and the Dolphins did not have an orange-dominant uniform until 2003.) The soft drink sold out to Procter and Gamble in 1980, I imagine on the strength of post-1977 sales increases. Subsequently the cocktail makes sporadic appearances in “beachy” locales until it takes root in Delmarva.
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Re: Dolphins I agree about the color scheme which is why I added the note about Florida perhaps being more apt to pick up an orange flavored cocktail than most. It seems like there’s perhaps 3 major situations in which the drink pops up.
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In honor of a sports team that has orange as a color scheme. (Broncos, University of Tennessee, Auburn University).
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Near a beachy location as a sort of semi-tropical drink.
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In a locale associated with oranges such as Florida or California.
Florida has 1 and 3, but I think 3 is perhaps the bigger factor for the Dolphins connections.
Going down the Orange Crush rabbit hole a bit more other random tidbits keep popping up.
Looking at a book called Forgotten Maryland Cocktails published in 2015 they mention the drinks started in the 1980s at Harborside Bar & Grill, but more interestingly also mentions that Waterman’s Surfside Grille in Virginia counterclaims to have invented them. Apparently they even started a Crush Fest down there.
I will say looking up articles about them the timeline for when they invented the drink varies a lot so I don’t know how much stock to put into their claim.
The more interesting challenger is the Ocean City bar The Bearded Clam who are mentioned in this Thrillist article. In their favor they have multiple old photos of their juicing station and customers drinking what look to be Orange Crushes which you can see on their Instagram.
EDIT:
Was reading more articles about the orange whip and noticed this random tidbit where they mentioned that the Orange Crush debuted the same time as another drink called the Orange Whip.
I was curious if doing a text search for the recipes might reveal a cocktail book with both recipes and I did indeed find one.
To be clear this edition is from 2000. There are earlier editions that pre-date 1995, however, and I suspect this drink recipes are in those as well. I just couldn’t find a copy online.